Bon Appétit Management Company

The kitchen crew at Institute of American Indian Arts, in Santa Fe, NM, led by Executive Chef Guido Lambelet, took a trip out to Old Windmill Dairy to learn more about the great cheese they’ve been using in their kitchens — and to get a chance to make some of their own.

I had a wonderful time in sunny California where I visited Whittier College in honor of Food Day, an annual nationwide celebration of healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. My visit kicked off with a luncheon with landscape architect Glen Dake. Glen gave a presentation on how to build landscapes that volunteers both love and are capable of managing. The room was full of students from Whittier’s Urban Agriculture Club that were interested in learning techniques to get volunteers engaged with gardening. The presentation covered everything from how to make weeding assignments glamorous, to what plants can survive without much effort.

This year I went trekking in the Himalayas of Nepal. Here are a few of the things I witnessed and how the experience sometimes turned my views on our sustainability commitments on their side.

Redlands Conservancy’s Emerald Necklace Program is an ambitious project, long in the works, that will preserve open space as well as Redland’s agricultural heritage. The program kicked off with a celebratory event catered by Bon Appétit at University of Redlands in Redlands, CA.

The food item that received the most attention last Tuesday was never touched by a chef’s hand at all: the kiwi berry.

It’s Local Fish Week here on the BAMCO blog, in honor of our first-ever Eat Local (Fish) Challenge! According to a new report from NOAA, Americans eat only about 15 pounds of seafood per capita annually, and of that, 91% is imported. Time to tip the scales in a healthy, homeward location! We’ll be running a tasty seafood recipe each day this week from our chefs.

Many Americans now know the names of the farms that grow their food, but even as we’re urged to eat more seafood for its health benefits, few of us can identify local species or the fishing operations that supply them. The time is ripe for local fish. Please join @bamco and @seafoodwatch for a Twitter chat on Monday, September 24, at 12pm Pacific.

At Bon Appétit, we love local food — just ask the thousand-plus small farmers, fishers, and artisans who supply us through our Farm to Fork program. Inspired by them, teams at many of our corporate accounts have started growing some of their own food.

“Which is better for the environment and the economy — a tomato grown nearby or one from the supermarket?” That’s how USA Today starts off a recent piece titled “Local food is trendy, but is it really more eco-friendly?,” discussing two new books that claim to debunk the idea that it is. This argument is a pretty moldy one — it’s been floating around since we launched the Eat Local Challenge, back in 2005 — and it surprises me that anyone still likes to take a bite of it.

Summer is almost here and that means one thing: it’s time to move cooking outdoors. Grilling is a great way to infuse flavor into food while keeping your house cool. Burgers are the iconic grill food, but some of our local Bay Area chefs are getting much more creative and grilling everything from fruit to lettuce!